Archive for the tag “government take-over of healthcare”

Rachel Maddow began last nights show discussing Mitt Romney’s flip-flop on what is becoming the highly controversial Blunt Amendment.

When asked about the amendment being put forth by Blunt and Rubio to allow employers to ban female contraception, Mitt Romney replied, “I’m not for the bill, I’m not going there”, he said in an interview.

Interestingly, when he discovered this particular amendment was part of the Conservatives long-term goal, (discussed below) he quickly released a statement recanting his previous comment, by claiming, “I didn’t understand his question, of course I support the Blunt Amendment.”

The Blunt-Rubio –Amendment would not only allow employers to ban contraception for women, but would also let employers pick and choose what type of health coverage their employees are allowed to receive. As pointed out by Rachel Maddow, “Your boss decides whether or not you get it!”

There are ALL of these reasons, Rachel says, why Republicans should not pick this fight right, which she explains one by one in turn.

– Hypocrisy of Republicans flip-flopping on this issue

– Polling data showing people are against it

– Distraction from what Republicans should be focusing on, jobs!

Rachel says, “They know all these things. Why are they doing it anyway? When they decided to pursue the Blunt amendment in the Senate and lose on it and then keep going on it. Why are they doing that? “What is it that is more advantageous to them in pursuing all of this stuff, then all of its obvious downsides?”

“I think its framing. I think it’s the overall long-term conservative goal of framing anything that Democrats are for as a Government intrusion into your life that you are going to resent.” BINGO!!

She then proceeded to discuss the manipulator himself, Frank Luntz, who advises Republicans what to say and how to say it to convince people to support their radical agenda by framing Democrats for actions the GOP is guilty of committing. Frank Luntz told republicans, “Don’t be against reform, be against a Government take-over of healthcare, be against Government intrusion into your lives.”

As pointed out by Rachel, if the language used in the healthcare debate worked, then why not use this language for birth control too. “Don’t say its about contraception, don’t say its about women at all, say its about a big Government takeover, say its about Government intrusion, say its about Government pushing its way into your space.”

This is EXACTLY what they are doing. For a visual of this framing effort in action, take a look at this MUST SEE clip! Eugene Robinson, political analyst on the program said, “you can’t really claim Government intrusion if your doing the intruding.”

Who is Frank Luntz? Briefly, he is the guy responsible for crafting specific language that is intended to guide our thinking in a certain direction. This language is then repeated over and over on Fox news and other corporately controlled media outlets until others start repeating it and it becomes common knowledge. This is what is called framing, in a nutshell, and works similar to schemas in psychology.

To see Frank “The Liar” Luntz’s work in action, check out the frame he created to direct our attention away from providing health care to our citizens in favor of thinking that this type of legislation would allow Government to stand between you and your doctor. (which is precisely what insurance companies do)

This video SAYS it all! (GOP parrots Frank Luntz)

This isn’t the only frame this guy is responsible for.

Frank “The Liar” Luntz is responsible for much of the misinformation and out-right lies about a host of issues from health care reform, framed as “Government take-over of healthcare”, global warming framed as “climate change”, immigration issues, framed as “illegal immigration” and budget and tax policy, framed as “tax relief”.

These are a few of his latest and greatest hits, revealing how he gets paid to lie for a living, and manipulate the public to hate each other, vote against their self-interest, and perpetuate a system of income inequality that transfers wealth from the middle-class and working poor up to the very people who pay Frank Luntz to lie for a living.

Who are these people? Those in the top 0.1%, who benefit enormously by exploiting the shit out of us!

With the help of this Liar, we are being manipulated by framing to blame poor people and immigrants for destroying our economy and taking our jobs, to vote against life saving protections of the air we breathe and water we drink, for providing all citizens with healthcare, and to provide corporate welfare and more of our tax dollars to the very corporations and exorbitantly wealth people who stand to benefit by perpetuating all of the lies Frank Luntz helps to create.